Colgate

Colgate Palmolive yesterday hit a new 52-week high again at Rs.1301.65. The stock is up after it posted very good numbers for Q2FY13 with a 37% (YoY) rise in net profit at Rs.145 crore on a 18% rise in net sales at Rs.774 crore and sequentially, it was up 24%. EBIDTA jumped up by a whopping 300 bps at 24.64%. The company, in a Press Release has stated that prudent price increases and cost management has enabled the company to maintain its gross margin for the period despite significant inflationary pressure. QoQ , employee cost was down 13% and advertising cost rose 6%.

The company achieved a volume growth of 10% and its toothpaste volume market share has increased to 54.3% (Jan’12 - Sept’12) as against 52.3% for the same period of the previous year with strong volume growth of 11% through its flagship brands “Colgate Dental Cream”, “Colgate Active Salt”, “Colgate Total” , “Colgate Max Fresh”. The Company has also registered a strong growth momentum in the toothbrush category with volume market share of 39.0% (Jan’12-Sept’12). The Mouthwash category has a market share of 26.8% (Jan’12 –Sept’12). Typical of MNCs, this company is also debt free. On an equity of Rs.13.60 crore, annualized EPS stands at Rs.39.